I mentioned Isaac Watts, but only once in passing. I meant to include this picture of his grave marker:...but I forgot. Thanks for the reminder.

Happy birthday to Isaac.

I renamed the post you linked to, and it destroyed your link. If you want to fix it, here's the correct link.

(Note to everyone: I renamed all the "Monday Menagerie" posts with Roman numerals, so if you were linked to one, your link probably stopped functioning. Sorry. I didn't realize that would happen when I renamed them.)

Dan Padenhas good advice for pastors and church leaders. This is my paraphrase, not Dan's words, but here's the gist of it: quit dumbing down your teaching. The widespread doctrinal ignorance today doesn't mean Christians are stupid; it does mean they aren't being well taught.

Will at "Prydain" wishes I were wrong (as do I), but thinks I might have a valid point. One of his commenters opines that I may have been a little too hard on "Forty Days of Purpose." I'll go this far: I agree that Rick Warren's material is a vast improvement over some of the fare one might be exposed to in the typical episcopalian environment, but I still find scant encouragement in that.

Nothing makes me feel young these days. But I sincerely appreciate the effort. BTW, I checked your blog this morning. 1. I hope my wisecracking BlogSpots didn't play any part in prompting your thoughts about "Sticks and stones." (Great post.) 2. Tiger Balm is an effective remedy for gremlins. Apply sparingly to forehead.

Frank:

I knew it wasn't a flasher. I was just havin' a little fun with you. I like your new design. What I really don't get is the grainy picture in your profile. I'm guessing that's not really you. Who are you, anyway? Do I know you in a real-life context? If you're within driving distance, give me a call (661-295-5777) and let's do lunch. I'll buy.

Having glanced at Kim's sticks and stones blog entry, I was reminded of a time in one of those artsy courses in college where we were given three descriptive words about a person, and asked to provide three more that we imagined could be inferred to the described individual (given the three a priori descriptives) The words were "warm, intelligent, patient" Our "group came up with something like "fatherly, loving, and kind" Another group was given the set - but instead of "warm" as one of the words, "cold" was given - such that their list was "cold, intelligent, and patient" this one word exchanged in the group of three had the power to change the entire scope of the generated/inferred words: Words like "conniving, calculating, and evil/hateful" came up. This example was given to us to demonstrate how certain words associatively imply more than others.

Well, the header is changed anyway. Whether that guy looked like a flasher or not, I'd think about it every time I loaded the blog.

I'm always in for free lunch, but I live in rural Arkansas. The odds of me driving up for a bit of Chinese buffet are low. However, PP needs a free lunch, so if you run into him take care of the poor lad.

I'm also not so sure that posting your phone number was a great idea. I'm not saying that Dave Armstrong and iMonk are into phony phone calls, but at the same time, some people are.

No, Phil, your antics did not spur my post for today. The one that inspired that would me little old me. Actually, I felt a little bad after calling you unchivalrous and was convicted about my motor mouth *blush*

The same happened to me in reverse. I am a deacon, and my "secret" blog was spotted bu Phil, after which it was almost instantly noticed by one of the young men in the congregation. The fellow suspected that I had a blog, but since I never told him what it was called or where it could be found. He had to live in darkness about it - that is, until I was spotted! We both had quite a chuckle over it - well, I did at least. :)